Australian
Screen

an NFSA website

All titles produced in 1925

24 titles

A

Albion, Douglas: Children’s Birthday Party home movie – c1925

This short segment is one of three reels of nitrate film chronicling significant events and celebrations in the Albion family during the early 1920s.

Australasian Gazette – Annual Christmas Treat newsreel – c1925

This segment from an old cinema newsreel shows Christmas celebrations for children at the Victoria Barracks in Sydney, including a live puppet show and Father Christmas handing out presents.

Australasian Gazette – Armistice Day, Melbourne newsreel – c1925

This newsreel clip from about 1925 shows the crowd gathered on the steps of Parliament House, Melbourne, for Armistice Day. 'The Last Post’ plays after two minutes of silence.

Australasian Gazette – Parliament Opens the New Session newsreel – 1925

In this newsreel from 1925, the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Dudley de Chair, arrives by car to open Parliament House in Melbourne.

Australasian Gazette – Ship Building as Hobby newsreel – c1925

In this 1925 newsreel, builders of model passenger liners sail their boats on a pond in Moore Park, Sydney.

An Australian Invention: Falkiner Cane Harvester in Operation sponsored film – c1925

This film, possibly made by the Queensland Cane Growers Organisation, promotes the use of the mechanical harvester – a real innovation at the time.

B

Building a Motor Body sponsored film – c1925

The South Australian Government commissioned this promotional film to attract workers to the Woodville car plant; at the time, the second largest in the British Empire.

Building a Railway Engine sponsored film – c1925

The state government commissioned this short film showing work at the South Australian Railways engine construction and repair plant outside Adelaide.

Bushells Blue Label Tea: Bushells Tea Factory advertisement – c1925

This ad takes the form of an industrial documentary by showing the process of tea making.

C

Children’s Party, Boys Wrestling and Outdoor Performances home movie – c1925

Cameras were relatively expensive in the 1920s and mostly confined to families who could afford the new technology.

E

The Evolution of a Chocolate sponsored film – 1925

The chocolate factory which features in this film employed over 2,000 people and – according to the intertitles – was one of 'the best producers of chocolates’.

F

Factory to Farm: Making Agricultural Implements in Australia sponsored film – c1925

This film provides a visual record of the inner workings of an agricultural implements factory as well as the role of sheet metal workers and fitters and turners.

L

Lifesavers: Cryst-O-Mint Flavour advertisement – 1925

Running for over 17 minutes, this cinema advertisement is long compared to current standards.

M

Magnavox Wireless: Why Jones Chose a Magnavox advertisement – 1925

Compared to contemporary car radios, the Magnavox Wirelesses seems absurd because of its large size.

Maxonol Gramophone: Buy a Good Gramophone and Keep Her at Home advertisement – 1925

Typically for a cinema advertisement of the time, it takes a narrative style and is shot like a slowly paced short film.

Melbourne Scenes historical – c1925

Various subjects such as Alfred Deakin’s funeral and an AFL match reveal glimpses of Victorian life in the 1920s.

O

Opal Mining Lightning Ridge documentary – c1925

Davidson collected over a million feet of footage over 40 years including the miracle of a man pulled from a mine shaft, never once hindered by the pipe in his mouth.

P

The Popular Sport of Surfboarding newsreel – 1925

An early newsreel of pioneering surfboard riders at Bondi Beach in Sydney in 1925.

R

The Rising Generation documentary – c1925

This incomplete documentary from 1926 promotes the public education system in South Australia from kindergarten through to university.

S

Snippy is an Artful Dodger short film – c1925

This charming example of an early Australian cartoon superimposes cell animation over freeze-frames of live action to create Snooks’s dream world.

T

Thursday Island and Merauke, Dutch New Guinea historical – c1925

The cast and crew of Frank Hurley’s feature-length dramas, The Hound of the Deep (1926) and The Jungle Woman (1926), explore the culture and environment of their island locations.

Timber Getting in New South Wales documentary – c1925

Wood choppers balance on thin planks while rigorously swinging their axes. A silent film looking at the timber industry in New South Wales in the 1920s.

A Trip Along the River Murray documentary – 1925

This silent black-and-white film from 1925 emphasises the ‘Mighty Murray’ river’s significance in Australia’s agricultural and natural history.

W

Wirth’s Circus Film historical – c1925

Wirth’s Circus, one of Australia’s most well-known family circuses, toured the country extensively in the 1920s and embarked on world tours to England, South Africa and South-East Asia.